G4M3 0V3R (Game Over)
by TakuikaNinja
Summary: This is the sequel to "Diary of a Pixel Artist".
1. Chapter 1

"Game Over." The two words illuminated the dark bedroom in a lime green tint. The high-pitched noise of the CRT was the only sound to be heard. Outside the window was the bright full moon, glaring over Inkopolis Square. No one was awake, except for a certain blue inkling. He sighed and tossed the controller in front of him. He mumbled to himself in an annoyed tone:

"Why am I even bothering to play this game? My teammates don't care about the objective and the enemies are too good. And what do I get for winning? Close to nothing. When I lose, I get blamed for it despite me putting in the most effort to win. And let's not even talk about the amount of grinding I had to do to get up to the high ranks."  
The inkling sighed again, deeply this time. His snorkel showed a glimpse of his reddened eyes, a result of staying up so late.

A cyan-coloured inkling stepped into the room, rubbing his eyes.  
"Taku?" He asked.  
"Did I wake you up, Mike? Sorry bud." Taku replied, sighing heavily.  
"No, I wanted to tell you something."  
"What is it?"  
"It's about my old job..."  
"Let me guess. You're still in contact with those filthy octarians and they're planning revenge on us."  
Mike stared awkwardly at the floor. "How did you know?"  
"Well, why else would you talk about them? You never said a thing about it ever since I got you out of their mess."  
"...I wanted to forget about it."  
"I can understand that. Thanks for letting me know, though. Say, what are they planning against us anyway?"  
"I don't know. They probably hid it in their website."  
"Which requires a password you don't know."  
"Yeah..."  
"I'll have a look tomorrow after our Salmon Run shift then."  
"Thanks. Good night then."  
"Good night."

The next morning, Taku was rudely awoken by a notification on his phone.  
"Let's see... 'Team Modern Wins Splatfest!' Darn it. The one time I choose the unpopular side, the popular team wins. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed."  
He noticed a piece of paper on his bedside table. It read: "Off 2 get 2 rank S+. C U Grizzco."  
"Oh boy, I can't wait 'til he catches up to me in rank X," Taku said to himself sarcastically.  
He hurryingly headed to Grizzco., hoping the weapon combination was decent enough this time. What he didn't know was that his luck was just about to become worse today...

Taku made it to Grizzco., but Mike was nowhere to be seen in the place. At first, he thought Mike was just in overtime in a match, but then he started to panic as time went on with no sign of his roommate. He ran around asking everyone in the square; Mr. Grizz, Judd and Lil' Judd, Crusty Sean, an inkling with a green crystal amulet, a band that calls themselves 'The Rocker Squids,' a green-haired octoling who has a pet leopard shark and a squid whose name is one letter off of 'Atari' just to name a few. But no one saw Mike at all.

Taku knew he couldn't rely on authorities to find Mike. He knew they would ask questions about Mike's background, and that would result in unwanted attention from the media.

"If I don't find him soon, it'll be game over for him and me."


	2. Chapter 2

Taku returned to his apartment 5 minutes away from Inkopolis Plaza. He was sweating heavily as he opened the door. He was hoping Mike would be there, rolling on the floor laughing and squidbagging from a well-thought-out prank. However, no one was there to laugh at Taku except for the idols on the posters that hung on the wall of his room.  
"I wish I wasn't born on Friday the 13th. Maybe then none of this carp would have happened," he muttered as he booted up his computer. The website Mike had asked him to see had a very dark purple theme, which didn't surprise Taku. A password field sat in the middle of the page. He decided to type in '1NK71N95_5U(K' as a first guess. It worked.  
"Wow. If their web security is this bad, I might actually have a chance to win their game." Taku said sarcastically. He proceeded to browse the website for information. He found the following blog post:

About Project 745T_H4770W33N

The date of our plan is near. We'll give you all a reminder of what to do in 2 steps:

1\. Capture Subject M1K3 and bring him to the HQ.

2\. Get rid of anyone who attempts to find him.

Extra notes: Beware of a blue inkling wearing a snorkel. He was last seen in a shoot-out with our elites with the subject on his side and responsible for the destruction of our lab. You may be rewarded if you bring him alive to the HQ.

Copyright 102018 M5-D054

"What have I gotten myself into?" Taku thought while looking for more information about the project. Sadly, there seemed to be no other posts.  
"Maybe there's some info about Mike here," he said to himself. He searched for his roommate's name and clicked on the only result:

Subject Info

\- Subject ID: M1K3

\- Description: The proudest result of our experiments. After many failed attempts, he became is the first cephalopod born with the DNA of a H0M054P13N extracted from a 10'000-year-old fossil. We will soon implement this into our Octarian elites.

\- Status: Alive and well. Observed changes from monitoring are as follows; Increased intelligence and athletic abilities compared to regular cephalopods, resistance towards Hydrogen Monoxide and an obsession towards video games.

Copyright 102018 M5-D054

Taku wasn't shocked at all. He conversed with himself, "I guess that makes sense; No wonder he learns stuff so quickly. I mean, according to him he learnt Japanese in under two years! It took almost six years for me to do that..."  
"And that one time we got to fifth place in the league battle rankings; He got 31 splats with a freakin' Bamboozler!" he continued.  
"Now I see why he asked me. I was the first one to see him as a friend, not an experimental subject. I mean a lot to him..." Tears started to drop from his eyes, distorting his view of the screen.

Taku stood up from his seat and opened his container of weapons. It was time to rescue his friend from the past again.


	3. Chapter 3

Looking into the container of weapons, Taku sorted them out. The ones most used in his collection were the N-ZAPs and Jet Squelchers. However, this inkling was bored and wanted a much greater challenge compared to his last encounter. He opted for the Clash Blaster.  
"If they can't aim, I might as well use a weapon that doesn't need aiming to be fair," he muttered to himself.  
Taku noticed a parcel at his door just as he was heading out.  
"Must be the special gear for Splatoween," he told himself as he cut open the box. In it was a hockey mask with a mint green tint. It was the perfect gear for this unlucky squid. He then left his apartment with no further delays.

~Inside the M5-D054 labs...~

The room was dark, quiet and unsettling. The floor seemed to have patches of ink stains from whatever events that occurred in the place. Stenches of paint lingered in the air. Two cephalopods were in there; One cyan inkling was chained up on a chair and an octoling was standing over the inkling with a crooked smile. This octoling was no regular elite. She wore a lab coat with holes, rips and burn marks everywhere. Her skin was oddly coloured in cyan. The octoling spoke first with a grainy voice, giggling after each sentence:  
"You had great squid guts running away from us, Subject M1K3. Or should I say, 'Mike' as your snorkel friend likes to call you? I'm afraid we're not 'quite' done with our experiments on you."  
The inkling had no choice but to remain silent. He had given up at this point.  
"Judd got your tongue? Well then, maybe you'll talk after I inject this into your ink stream."  
The female octoling took a syringe out of her lab coat. Its contents were a mix of blue and green ink, almost identical to her hair.  
"With just this, you'll become more efficient in winning matches than any cephalopod that ever existed. You'll know what to do at any moment in any match. I know you want to be 'fresh' and 'stay off the hook' by being the best, so why aren't you cooperating?"  
Mike spoke up. He might as well attempt to 'talk it out' before it's too late.  
"Because I know you 'made' me for the sole purpose of taking over inkopolis. You LIED about me being adopted. You FORCED me to do all those tests for YOUR shellfish purposes. All your 'checkups' were just countless experiments, weren't they? And look what you're doing now! Is this still for the sake of science?"  
The scientist was shocked. This was the first time any of her subjects became self-aware of their creation.  
"You...!"

The inkling was now smirking. He had figured out a way to waste time until help arrives.  
"Oh, in case you were wondering. I only found this out two days ago. You really need to update the password on your website. I bet my friend's already figured out the situation by now. He's probably on his way as we speak."  
The octoling was splatted by words. However, she continued to argue.  
"But how can your snorkel friend find you? Were in the middle of nowhere!"  
She had a point. Yet, Mike was still grinning.  
"That's where you're wrong. Remember those parasites you made me release last year? My friend actually kept one as a pet. I decided to install a tiny microchip in it that would emit a GPS signal so we wouldn't lose it. My friend and I can track it from our phones. And guess where that pet parasite is?"  
He opened his mouth to show the 'bug' on his tongue. He continued:  
"Checkmate, am I right? It's too late even if you get rid of me or the bug. He'll avenge me sooner or later."  
The octoling was at a loss of words. Mike decided to give one final blow to her.  
"So what are going to do now, Ms Dosa? Now that I think about it, you work and think slower than an MS-DOS computer. Did your mum 'crash' your CPU when you were a baby?"  
Ms Dosa was triggered so much that she lunged at Mike to strangle him, knocking the chair over and loosening the chain that held him in place. The syringe was also knocked out of Ms Dosa's hand onto the floor. What began as an interrogation with no escape suddenly became a brawl between the two cephalopods to get the syringe. One wanted it in her hands to continue her plans, the other wanted to get rid of her along with it.

~In the train heading out of Inkopolis Square...~

Taku sat in the train, blankly staring at his phone. Squitter had many posts about the upcoming new weapons, especially the Kensa branded ones. On SquidTube there were various videos about the soon-to-be-released game, Super Smashing Squids. Some were theories, some were reaction videos to its trailer and some were leaked gameplay clips from pirated copies. The Internet was Taku's favourite place to view, discuss and express his interests, even if there were trolls online. It was a great place to escape to after a long day of ranked matches.

This day, however, he couldn't escape from his worries towards Mike. He was desperately thinking of ways to find him until he remembered something very important.  
"Eureka! The Parasite! I'm sure he has it right now! I can track that! Who knew that parasite would come in handy!" he exclaimed in his head; It would have been awkward if he yelled that in a busy train full of cephalopods. He opened up the tracking app and found the location to be at—.  
"Mt. Nantai is the next stop. Please make sure to exit the train promptly as soon as the train comes to a complete stop—"  
The train announcer interrupted Taku's thoughts. This was well-timed as it was the station he needed to get off at.

Mt. Nantai was a peaceful place full of nature, the last place you would expect an evil lab to be located at. Rumours say this was the place where the idols of Off the Hook first met each other. But that was not what Taku came for. He came to save a very important friend.

There was no turning back now that he was in the right place.


	4. Chapter 4

The climb up Mt. Nantai wasn't as hard as Taku had expected. He kept on following the GPS signal until he reached the top. He could barely see Inkopolis Square in the distance. However, no lab was to be found.  
"The signal says it's right here," Taku said to himself. "So where is it?"  
He was utterly confused. Was the signal a fake to lure him? Taku was caught up in his thoughts until he heard the noise of branches breaking under him. He looked at his feet to see there was a hole. His question was answered. "An underground lab. That makes a lot of sense," Taku mumbled as his bad luck let him down once again.  
His fall was cushioned by what seemed to be a slide constructed from pipes. He slid as it turned, twisted and weaved all over the place. It was going to be a long slide down. The Clash Blaster that Taku was holding slipped out of his hand and fell ahead of him.

~Inside the M5-D054 labs...~

The brawl between Mike and Ms Dosa continued. It was a simple continuous loop of one getting the syringe to end it, only to have the other knock it out of their hand. Various sounds of their smacks, punches and kicks echoed throughout the small dark room. It was anyone's game. Eventually, Ms Dosa managed to grab the syringe and corner Mike into the literal corner of the room.  
"Game over, Mike. Nice try," she proudly announced before laughing hysterically. Mike gulped as he felt the fear of his fate. He closed his eyes and hopelessly waited for the injection. A large clatter interrupted the two. Ms Dosa looked back to see a Clash Blaster lying on the floor.  
She picked it up asking to herself, "Where'd this come from?" She took a glance at the ceiling to notice something else coming down. She couldn't move out of the way in time; She was immediately crushed by it, screaming in agony.

Mike opened his eyes in realisation that help had just arrived. He walked up to whatever hit the scientist. It was the blue inkling he had always known, only wearing a hockey mask instead of the usual snorkel. "Your bad luck saved the day again, Taku," Mike said after a sigh of relief.  
"I guess," Taku responded as he saw what he had landed on. "What a mess she's caused."  
"Now's not the time for puns."  
"That was unintentional. Besides, she's still breathing. I think we should take her to the police."  
"Why?"  
"'Cause I've heard the reward money for her is pretty high."  
"Oh, okay. If she's being watched 24/7, I'm fine with that."  
"That's sorted, then. Now we need to get out of here. You know the fastest way out?"  
"The Deepsea Metro's the only way out I know."  
"That sounds like a slow one. You sure there aren't any fire exits or something?"  
"Um, I think there's one. We'll have to look for it."  
The two headed out of the room, taking turns carrying the now unconscious scientist. Thanks to the Clash Blaster, they managed to wipe out any sectarian that came their way without much effort.

After what seemed like an hour, Taku and Mike came across a flight of stairs heading towards the surface. They briefly sat down to take a break. Mike decided to tell Taku about Ms Dosa.  
"So she's technically your mother and she tried to turn you into a splatting machine. What made her try to wipe us inklings out twice?" Taku said in sorrow after Mike's story.  
"I don't know. We'll have to wait until she's in custody. Say, what's with the hockey mask?"  
Taku looked at his phone. Splatoween was already over and Christmas was near.  
"It 'was' Splatoween when I left. Guess I'll take it off."  
"I thought you didn't like squids trying to see your face."  
"No, no. I usually wear the snorkel 'cause it protects my eyes from the sprays of ginger beer."  
"Like when opening an undercooled bottle? That happened to me once. It really hurts, doesn't it?"  
"Yeah."  
"And so it's usually a taboo topic because you don't want to explain such a specific and awkward reason."  
"Exactly. You're getting better at using common sense."  
"Weird compliment but thanks."  
"We should get going," Taku muttered while getting up.  
"Yeah, let's go home," Mike replied.

And so, the two delivered the scientist to the police station, received their reward money of 10,000 coins and got on the train heading home. The sun was setting as they took a seat.  
"Wow, the sunset's beautiful," Mike exclaimed as he took in the view.  
"Just like last year, isn't it?" Taku mumbled, getting his phone out. "How 'bout a selfie?"  
"Sure, why not?"


End file.
